Sacramento Kings forward Matt Barnes had some choice words for the New Orleans Pelicans after recent news of Lance Stephenson being waived by the team.

Barnes and Stephenson were teammates for a short stint as part of the Memphis Grizzlies last season. The mercurial forward shined light into the ruthless business the NBA can be.

“Something fans have to understand is y'all get mad when players leave during free agency or hold out for money,” Barnes wrote. “We have to do what's best for US, we have a small window to make as much money as we can.”

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Barnes makes a great point: the team will court players and embrace them when they're successful, but will not hesitate to spit them out once they fall off the cliff. It is a business, at the end of the day.

In all fairness, the team did debate the choice of waiving Stephenson, since he was one of the team's most versatile contributors off the bench — but their injury situation was piling up faster than they were able to get players on the court, ultimately forcing their hand.

To their credit again, the team has reached out to Stephenson and was fully willing to be involved in his recovery from the injury, even offering the potential chance of signing him again once he had fully recovered from the injury.

Former Phoenix Suns guard Archie Goodwin is expected to take Stephenson's spot after the Pelicans were unable to claim a hardship exception for having a number of players unable to play.